Jason Beach: Hey Josh, it’s Jason. First, I would say there are many hospital systems across the U.S. that are second, third system. For competitive reasons, we don’t disclose kind of number of units installed. But you certainly see numerous systems with multiple MAKOs. I think as you fast forward to a shoulder and spine application, you’re going to see more and more of that when you think about utilization and the need for future systems. So that’s kind of how we think about that.
Kevin Lobo: Yes, frankly, I would say it’s rare to have one MAKO in a hospital now. There are some that have five, six, seven MAKOs. I think 60% of our knees are going to MAKOs. There’s got to be a lot of MAKOs to be able to drive that kind of volume. So the days of people saying, well, this is my first MAKO, those days in the U.S. are kind of fading. That phenomenon still exists outside the U.S.
Operator: Our next question will come from Chris Pasquale with Nephron. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Chris Pasquale: Thanks. Just quickly on the SERF acquisition. Are there any particular portfolio gaps you closed with that deal? Or is it more about expanding your distribution footprint internationally?
Jason Beach: Yes, Chris, it’s Jason. And we’ll talk about this more after the close. But it really is – it helps from a hip portfolio perspective. But beyond that, we haven’t said much at this point. And like I said in my prepared remarks, we’re set to close this quarter, and then we’ll certainly talk more to that.
Chris Pasquale: Okay. And then I’m curious how you’re thinking about the outlook for neurovascular in 2024. 2023 was a better year for that segment in the U.S., but it kind of got offset by international. And along with Spine, it was really one of only two segments not to grow high single digits or better. So what’s the game plan to drive better growth in that business? And do you have what you need internally? Or do you need to look for supplements to that?
Kevin Lobo: Yes. Look, we continue to like the neuromuscular market, as there’s still a large number of patients that are being treated. It’s an attractive market growing high single digits. And we do expect to grow in line, at least in line with the market. We are obviously very hard hit by China this year with the VBP. We had a very big neurovascular business in China. So that hurt. I don’t know that we completely lapped it, but it’s going to – we’re going to get to the bottom of China pretty soon, and then that will be behind us. We also have the Cerus acquisition, which is off to a very good start outside the United States. We are seeking U.S. approval, I believe. That will be some time in 2025, maybe beginning of 2026.
So we still have a bit of time to wait for that, but that is a fabulous product for intrasecular technology. We are looking at an area like liquid embolic. We don’t have that product, as you want to think about one that we we’re going to be looking into. Every business has something they’d like to add. But we do have a good pipeline. We don’t talk about neurovascular pipeline too much because they get subject to regulatory approval through the PMA process. So – but the team does have some very good products that are lining up. And I do believe we’re going to be back to kind of much closer market growth, slightly above market growth in the years ahead. But as the market we continue to like, it obviously has gotten much more competitive on the ischemic side, and we continue to have a very strong business on the hemorrhagic side.
We launched a couple of products last year, the Vector 46 catheter, the Tetra [ph] coil and that kind of fueled some very good U.S. growth as you saw in the back half of the year. So we like the business. Yes, it’s not as fast growing as it was historically, but it’s still a very good business. We’re committed to it and do expect that that will pick up as we put VBP in the rearview mirror.
Chris Pasquale: Great. Thanks, Kevin.
Operator: Our next question will come from Danielle Antalffy with UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Danielle Antalffy: Hey, good afternoon guys. Thanks so much for taking the question. I’ll echo everyone’s congrats on a really strong end of the year and a strong start to 2024. Just a quick question on the orthopedics market in general. One of the things I’ve been trying to get a handle on is what’s really happening in underlying market growth. Obviously, 2023 benefited from some semblance of a backlog work down. But it seems like yourselves and your competitors – not that you have guided specifically for Ortho, but seem to be signaling higher than sort of normal, call it, pre-COVID market growth. And I’m curious, beyond pricing, what’s really changed here? Has capacity increased? We talked about ASCs. What’s changed fundamentally in the orthopedic – large joint orthopedics market that might be driving higher – sustainably higher growth versus pre-COVID levels?
Jason Beach: Danielle, it’s Jason. I think a couple of things, right? And Kevin even alluded to this, I think, earlier as well. But I think there’s a variety of things around demographics. Kevin touched on activity levels. Certainly, that plays a part here. We talked about a more favorable pricing environment. Certainly, it plays a role. And then if you think just from an adoption standpoint with robotic-assisted surgery, I think there’s a variety of dynamics at play here that have come into play in terms of elevated market levels. And if you saw what we published coming out of Investor Day, we’ve said over the next two years to three years, we expect this to be in kind of that mid-single-digit range. So we’re certainly confident in 2024 and beyond as we think about the ortho markets.
Danielle Antalffy: And I guess just to follow up on that, how much of that is Stryker specific though, because given the innovation on Stryker side, the success of MAKO and pull through there? How much is market broadly versus Stryker specific if you can even remotely quantify that?
